Thoughtful Fridays

I have been reading a book by Ethan Hubbard, entitled Grandfathers Gift: A Journey to the Heart of the World. It is a powerful book, filled with simple vignettes and essays that provide a poignant and often eloquent window opening onto the lives of ordinary individuals the world over. I read each persons story with the reverence of a prayer and the sweetness of a caress. When I was very young, I determined that I would travel, see the world and its many ways of living. Not for some grandiose purpose(I was probably seven when I first became impassioned by the idea), but because somewhere embedded deep in my soul, I felt that if I were to travel, to see the faces of the multitudes, to experience their lives, to walk on their path, however briefly... then compassion would reveal itself to me in all its splendor. Not compassion born of gratitude for the many blessings in my life, but rather compassion that evolves when the boundary between "self" and "other" blurs. When the "reality" of my upbringing, no longer holds sway and the vision of "MY TRUTH" waivers before the luminosity of life itself. I remember a quote I read years ago when I was tipping my years toward the teens, "Belief is the greatest impediment to true knowing". It was this notion that cemented my desire to travel.
I didn't though.
I could easily dismiss this by enumerating a thousand things, great and small, that made staying seem necessary, even inevitable...but that wouldn't be honest. When I really look at myself and my relationship to my life, I realize that I've become tame. Tame in that I am comfortable with the reality I live in...with its warm bed and reliable meals, with its softness and convenience, with its numbing predictability and fearful security. Believe me, I am appalled to admit this. I haven't traveled as my young self assured me I would, in large part because it frightened me... the unknowns, the dangers, the lack of this or that.
But reading this book, is like hearing her voice, determined and resilient ...beckoning.

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FORGET ABOUT ‘HEALING’

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a story recently shared by a friend

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He is no longer here

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